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All member reviews for Mockingbird

Kids say

Such a beautiful, beautiful book

This would be one of my favorite books of all time. This is a book with substance (unlike dork diaries). It really gives all people who read it get a look through a girl's eyes who has Asperger's. Not only through the eyes of asperger's but through the eyes of special needs. That what's make this book so great. It really gives a new insight and shows the pain of grief and the process of closure from a child's point.
Such a beautiful, moving work of art

Mocking Bird

I must warn you, this book has many sad parts, and hard struggles. Devin's little sister, Catlin, has Asperger's syndrome, and with the loss of Devin, she struggles to make friends. But at the end, she starts to make friends at middle school... read this book about a girl and her struggles.

A wonderful portrayal of the struggles and person of an autistic individual

"Mockingbird", the author's thought of writing it, was utter brilliance, thoughtfulness, and empathy on the part of autistic persons. If I ever meet Ms. Erskine, I'm going to give her hand a big, tight shake and thank her for writing this book, placing herself in the shoes of the thousands, perhaps millions, of people in this world who are on the Autistic Spectrum and revealing their struggles and inner greatness. I know what it is like to grow up on the Spectrum, and, even though my case isn't as low-functioning as the protagonist's (ten-year old Caitlin), I know what these bright individuals have to face when it comes to their greatest challenge in life: interacting with "other people", unable to socialize and empathize with them fervently.
Erskine writes simply yet accurately through the eyes of Asperger's-diagnosed Caitlin, dry-eyed while mourning the loss of her older brother to a school shooting by reading up the definitions of important words like "closure" in her best friend the dictionary and wondering how anybody is going to understand her quirky, meaningful behavior and thoughts now that he is gone. With the help of her kind school counselor and her new-found friend Micheal (if I remember his name correctly), she treads down the long, hard road of recovery with her unconnecting father; suffering the realities of elementary school and struggling for a way out of their grief till they find "closure", and she finds the magic of empathy for others.
View-changing, imprinted in your memory for years to come, simplistic, satisfying, and deserving of the medal it got; that's how I describe it. I've even developed a fantasy of there being a law one day that every elementary and middle-schooler should read this! At the very beginning of the novel, with misty clouds, blue sky, and crudely drawn mockingbird on the cover, there's a dedication "...so that we may understand each other better." I realize now she was talking to me and all my other clubmates on the Asperger's/Autistic spectrum, as well as to the mentally "normal" kids reading the book. The reason why so many AS (Asperger's syndrome) and autistic kids get bullied at school like our heroine Caitlin is that they don't know how he or she thinks, or why he or she thinks it; likewise, we autistic people don't understand why all those neurotypical people don't "Get It", as Caitlin would put it, or why our classmates sit around talking about rock stars and make up; we'd rather talk about the Lord of the Flies' allegory and WWII history! This book could serve as a bridge between the normal kids and autistic kids, showing realistically what the other thinks why.
Because this book was so good I can think of nothing wrong with it. No violence beyond the post-school shooting atmosphere and discussion, and a few instances of bullying; no sex, bad language, consumerism, etc.
Above all, every kid, and adult because there are most definitely autistic adults in this world, should read this. You will never look at an Asperger's or autistic person the same way AGAIN, or a neurotypical person. After reading this book, I was able to associate a bit more with the neurotypical people around me, appreciate my adult teachers and mentor better, and even empathize very well with a boy in my class who has even more low-functioning Asperger's than me. I already had a general idea of how his mind worked, but I understood even better after zipping through "Mockingbird". I realized that even though his humor was off and hard to get, his social skills in need of work, and his accompanying speech problems a hindrance, it all wasn't really that bad; it was just who he was, and in reality very understandable, when you thought about it. I have confidence that you or your child will feel and reflect something similar. Thanks again, Ms. Erskine, for writing this book.

Pleasant Surprise

At a time when I was very interested in this genre of literature, my good friend recommended Mockingbird to me. When a first read it, my immediate instinct was not to go on. The writing style is a bit dry, the kind you see in book's of Wendy Mass's and others like her. However, I continued for the sake of my friend. As I read on, I found myself more and more satisfied with the book. The plot intrigued me, and I kept reading to the end. I have learnt through this book just how much you can learn through a different perspective.

Simple things, simple things.

The book overall was fine, it had a mediocre plot, put a decent Macguffin relatively early on, and put some nice messages. It may just be that I have an certain pet peeve of an author trying to make a socially awkward intelligent character, but it shows quite evidently that Caitlin hasn't read enough books. It may be because I'm biased since I could read around 9th grade reading levels in 2nd grade and read an Oxford English Dictionary in 3rd grade, but it makes me feel like Caitlin a little dull. Her character itself is not anything I would praise. But I have probably read too many classics to really give a good review of any book nowadays. The constant reminders of Caitlins unique characteristic only succeeded in alienating her for me. The lack of anything to actually normalize Caitlin really just made her a cardboard cut-out for a character. Sure, the tragedy is great, but these little things here and there constant break up the book for me. But even though the tragedy was great, it wasn't anything creative, the author even noted the minor similarity to Bambi, and to be honest, I didn't even realize the mom was dead because I just couldn't like the main character. The character that would have been better to focus on would be her dad, since he is the most likable, he lost his wife and then lost his son, so now all he has left is his daughter. That would have been a better story in my opinion because it's stronger, it has more struggles, and a deeper hole to come out of, the path the author took was one that forced me to ride along with a character that I couldn't like or connect with. The only thing that I shared in common with her is that I couldn't stand recess. I would be in the most secluded recesses in recess reading a good book, maybe lord of the flies, which is still one of my favorite books because of it's good plot, although harking back to just about every desert island scenario, it had good symbolism and motifs. That is really what stopped this book from taking a step up to see eye-to-eye with To Kill a Mockingbird. It couldn't bring anything worth noting to the table. In other words. It's just another book trying to illustrate the struggles of kids with certain conditions but takes a step too far and turned into a pity grab. That is why I recommend this book for kids 5 and up, it would succeed in getting the pity it wants from them, or at least a 5 year old version of me, anything older, it fails. It failed for me in third grade and it failed for me in sixth, I am disappointed in my schools choice in summer reading books. In conclusion, this book had a lot of potential, and then chose to focus on the wrong character.

One of the best books I've ever read!

This book is touching and moving. Caitlin is a compelling character, and easy to empathise with. Because this book is told in first person, we can see the unfairness of other kids teasing Caitlin through her eyes, but also can understand why they tease her. Caitlin simply has trouble understand interacting with other people. She has good intentions, but has trouble expressing them.
Fortunately for Caitlin and the readers, there is a complete ending to this book. The ending is both satisfying and legitimate, and will leave readers with a better sense of Asperger's in general.

beautiful and touching story

this is such a good book. her brother dies before the book starts so there is not much violence. some words may a little confusing for younger children but the book explains most of them some scenes are a little sad. you should probably talk about autism with your child before they read the book to help them understand it a little better

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